Rug Doctor: a review

It was good timing when an email arrived asking if I would like to review Rug Doctor right after Ghostwriterdaddy spilled a cup of coffee on the cream carpet and a strange smell started to drift from the room… Well, you can guess that I agreed!

I was given a voucher that would entitle me to a 24 hour hire of a Rug Doctor carpet cleaner and a litre of cleaning solution. I have to say that I’ve been intending to do a proper clean of the carpets for some time and since Spring was sprung (before the rain came back) it seemed like a good time to do it. So off I went to Morrisons (you can hire them there and at other venues around the country) to get my machine.

The leaflet that we got with the cleaner is very easy to understand and within no time I was ready to go. Of course, I took photos of the offending carpet for the purposes of this review but I beg you- please don’t judge me! Sometimes you just don’t realise how dirty carpets get over time when you have an active family…

Ok, so I found the machine simple to fill, easy to use and easy to drain after use. That’s all fine and well- but did it clean the carpets?

I had 1 litre of cleaning solution which was intended to clean two rooms. In fact, I actually I cleaned the living room, up the stairs, the landing and my bedroom. So 1 litre goes a little further, depending on the size of your rooms. Its also worth mentioning that Rug Doctor promises dry carpets in around 2 hours and I found this to be the case, but only in rooms where the access to heating and fresh air through windows was not restricted. My upstairs landing took a little longer.

So the photos tell the whole story:

Carpet before

Dirty water!

Carpet after

Carpet stain before

Heavy traffic area by the door- part cleaned

Carpet stain after

Not perfect as there are still a couple of stains (grrr) that need a little more attention but overall the carpets look like new once more. The test came when I went to close the living room door and found that our carpet had rediscovered it bounce- the door struggled to close easily! Once more my carpets were the kind that your feet sink into when you walked on them! Which led to a new family rule- no more shoes in the house (I hated this anyway) and no food in the living room. We’re doing really well!

Overall, I would recommend the Rug Doctor. It’s cheap at around £20 for 24 hours and it’s easy to use. Most importantly, it does what it says it will- it cleans your carpet!

*I was sent a voucher to exchange for 24 hour hire and 1 litre of cleaning fluid. I was not given any money for this review and all opinions are my own.